Digging Out Here's something from long ago on a special day when I rode the snow fleet up to Tunnel Section deep in the wilds of the Chugach Mountains. This is what I wrote when I first shared this long ago. The snow fleet is climbing slowly up the nearly 2.2% grade enroute to tunnel with Jordan Spreader #7 leading, trailed by two geeps and a depressed center flat car loaded with a CAT. To the left can be seen the south portal of the 310 ft Tunnel they exited moments earlier. This little tunnel at MP 51.9 is the southern most of five in short succession. Immediately south of the tunnel's portal is the 160 ft long Placer River bridge, a portion of which is also visible spanning the deep gorge. This is one of the most remote and wildly scenic pieces of the entire Alaska Railroad. The work train crew is heading south up hill toward the site of the massive slide near MP49 in the famous loop district that buried a northbound freight out of Seward nearly a week prior. The excavator with the custom designed snow bucket is on its way to continue the arduous task of extracting flat cars from a tomb of snow. Here's a news story from back then. And scroll down thru this page for some crazy photos. Tunnel Station Chugach National Forest, Alaska |
